Is the gender-gap reversal a feedback loop? Demographic factors influencing gender-gap inequalities in tertiary education in European countries

The educational structures of European populations have changed significantly over the last 20 years. The average proportion of young people (aged 25–34) in European countries who had attained tertiary education increased from 25 % in 2000 to 41 % in 2020. This educational expansion has been accompanied by a change of the gender ratio in favor of women and the growth of a gender-gap reversal (GGR). We deal with demographic factors that influence the trends in GGR in tertiary education. We use the first round of Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS-I) data collected under the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) in 12 European countries. We analyze the effects of parental educational hypogamy (marriage where the wife’s education level is higher than the husband’s), parental tertiary homogamy (marriage where the wife’s tertiary level is the same as the husband’s), parental divorce, and non-intact origin family. The empirical results show that three of these factors have positive effects on women’s tertiary education attainment and increase the GGR. We argue that the increasing level of GGR then reinforces the prevalence of these factors in the tertiary educated population at the macro level by which the GGR is boosted again over time. Based on this cyclic argument we suggest interpreting the GGR in tertiary education as a positive feedback loop.